Terence looked at Mandy with confusion and then glanced at Jean. "What happened exactly? Can you please make it clear to me?"
"Nothing. Don't listen to my mother's nonsense," Jean hastily blurted out.
"Auntie, what happened?" Terence wasn't going to let this go. He needed to know everything that happened.
Mandy gave him a bitter smile and said, "It's because of the servants. They don't want to serve Jean and they think that it's unfair she's living here."
"Mom, please stop talking." Jean frowned and turned to Terence. "Please don't listen to her. It's not like what she said."
"Don't say anything, right now." Terence dismissed. "Please go on, Auntie."
"Alright." Mandy let out a deep sigh and continued, "I wanted to tell you that I saved some money over the last few years. I wanted to buy Jean a small house, so that she could live comfortably. That way, she wouldn't have had to deal with disrespectful servants."
"Auntie, what are you talking about?" Terence had a grim look on his face. "Jean is my friend. Now she's living here, she's technically the owner of the villa. I hired the servants and they work efficiently. But if they did something wrong, then that's something I can't tolerate.
But you're going to tell me what happened, right?"
"What happened?" Mandy mockingly stated. "Look at her hand. She is a good girl, but now she's injured. As her mother, I feel so sorry for her."
Her eyes turned red as she continued, "I raised my daughter well. Whatever happened between you and Julia also hurt Jean. I won't say anymore since Julia's also my daughter. But now...your servants deliberately hurt Jean. As her mother, I feel uncomfortable that they're still here."
"Mom, stop it..." Jean gently tugged Mandy's sleeve. "It was just a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding? What kind of misunderstanding?" Mandy sneered at her daughter. "Are you defending Tracy? I know that you are kind. You always hide what you're feeling. But Jean, those people don't like you. You've heard what they said about you! You can't just turn a blind eye to their hatred, I can't stand it.
I don't want you to live here anymore, so I want to clear this up today."
"Auntie, you're confusing me." Terence tilted his head and looked at her. "If they really bullied Jean, then I won't tolerate this behavior. What did they do?"
Mandy took the teacup in front of Jean and drank all of its contents. She held the empty cup in front of Terence's face. "In the beginning, the servants were really polite. Later, their attitudes became more hostile and they refused to do what Jean wanted. My daughter didn't say anything because they're your servants. Eventually, she did everything by herself and ignored what they were saying behind her back."
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: A Night with Her Cruel Mate